The present invention relates to distribution electronic health records (EHR) and, more particularly, to the automatic distribution of EHRs for use by emergency medical services (EMS) providers.
Over one million unconscious or non-communicative patients arrive in ERs every year in the United States. Unresponsive patients pose a major hurdle for emergency first responders in need of vital information in high-stakes situations. Access to electronic health records (EHR) provides first responders with medical backgrounds, emergency contact information, and medication histories, all of which are crucial in emergency treatment. However, when the patient is unresponsive it becomes difficult or impossible to locate and obtain protected health information, or even positively identify the patient being treated.
At present, a modern solution does not exist that allow first responders to quickly and securely obtain protected information from EHR providers when patients are unresponsive, disoriented, or poorly versed in their medical background. Current means for obtaining this information involve slow investigation and communication with a disjoint medical record network, use of expensive and invasive biometrics, or analog tools like alert bracelets.
As of 1996, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) established national standards for the transaction of EHRsi. Patients' HIPAA-protected data includes vital medical records first responders need access to at the site of emergency treatment, so a key healthcare demand entails quickly transmitting this data while maintaining patients' privacy. EHRs should be released only with the patient's permission or within the confines of law, and any information released in the context of a clinical interaction is considered confidential and must be protectedii.
Healthcare facilities require access to this data if EHRs are to function as intended, and the key to preserving their confidentiality is to allow only authorized individuals to access this data. This requires that any relevant parties be pre-authorized to access the information based on established role-based privileges. Any user given access will be held accountable for use and misuse of the information they view, so properly assigning and validating user privileges comprises a major aspect of medical record securityiii.
Maintaining secure records has proven a rising challenge in multiple domains as increasing amounts of consumer data have become available. A 2014 report on medical identify theft in the United States suggests that incidences of data breaches are rising, with 2.32 million victims reported in 2014, a 21.7% increase from the previous yeariv. Cloud storage, encryption, and basic password protection are vital aspects of ensuring EHRs remain secure. However, a 2011 survey found 73% of physicians confessed to texting other physicians about their work, and many healthcare professionals regularly access or discuss these records from personal mobile devicesv. Modern devices are easily misplaced, stolen, or wrongly accessed, so modern EHR transmission and storage protocols must highlight the use of encryption and proper validation.
Likewise, because medical records play crucial roles in informing treatment, steps must be taken to ensure that EHRs are accurate and unchanged following transmission. Loss or destruction of data during transfer will raise concerns about the usability of data, making them unfit as a basis for making care decisionsvi. Alterations to a patient's medical records may cause them to be billed for services they did not receive, misinform their caretakers, or lead them to receive unnecessary or dangerous treatments.
As can be seen, there is a need for a generalized and globally accessible system and method for (1) identifying a potentially unresponsive patient in an emergency setting, (2) locating that patient's EHRs in an unstandardized, byzantine record system, and (3) securely transmitting HIPAA-protected records from the EHR provider to the first responder at the site of treatment. improving the identification of a casualty at an injury or incident site, or on presenting at an Emergency services health care facility on an initial encounter with that facility.